Hello, I bought my first bass boat not long ago, but I'm having problems with the trolling motor. I took it out twice since I've had it. The very first time I took it out the trolling motor seemed to lock up(like it was catching), and I would have to pull it out of the water and turn the prop by hand a couple times and it would work fine again. This happened 2 or 3 times and then after that it always worked great. I was told the boat hadn't been used for much in the past 2 years before I got it so I thought maybe that had something to do with it. Now for the CURRENT PROBLEM. The batteries were old and never would fully take a charge so last payday I replaced them. After I replaced them I checked the trolling motor just to make sure everything was still working. But the trolling motor didn't. When I press the button to make it go you just hear a light click and the prop turns about a 1/4 turn. I messed with it awhile double checking connections and all that and never got it to work. Any ideas what might be wrong?

What you've probably got there is a p.o.s.  If you have any sort of warranty on it, I would suggest that you use it.  If not, you might just be better off getting a new one.  Thay are not expensive for a good one.  I've always stuck with Minn-Kota.

You said Batteries, is this a 24 volt motor, or is it a 12/24 with three wires connecting it?  

How many cables connect to the batteries and are there circuit breakers on the batteriers?  It there are cables connected to both batteries, it's possible they may be connected wrong  and tripped a circuit breaker.  If they are the manual reset type you have to push a little tab on them to reset them.

When you turn the prop by hand, does it turn fairly easily, other than the little resistance you get as it pass the poles in the magnets?

It's also possible the brushes in the motor are not making good contact after sitting for a long time or dirty/bad connections from corrosion in the switch.

I'm not sure if it's a 24 volt or not, it might say on it I need to look. It's a Motor Guide Brute that's 4 or 5 years old. It does have 4 cables, so there's a cable to go on each terminal. And there is a breaker box deal with 2 red buttons on it, but they didn't seem tripped. Like I said the prop twitches, moving maybe 1/4 a turn when I push the button. And it was out and working great about a month ago.

If you've checked and verified all that's good, check your foot switch.  Take a volt meter and start checking voltages.  Make sure you're getting full voltage all the way to the motor. Make sure you try to run the motor with the volt meter connected each time you check voltages, the voltage may be fine without a load but will go away as soon as you try to run the motor because of a faulty connection.  Start by check the voltage at the TM side of the motor connector, if bad, check the boat side of the TM connector, then go back and check it at the batteries on the lead post, then where the cables connect onto the circuit breakers.    When you have good voltage at one point and loose it at another, what's inbetween is bad.

THere's a number of things that can be your problem.  The foot switch, improperly wired or bad/corroded connections and the circuit breakers are the most common.

First things first, have you pulled the prop to make sure you're not wrapped with line?

If that's not it I'd say your motor sounds terminal.  Since it's a motorguide that's not surprising....

:running:  

I think J-bass is right you have a POS. I bought a Motorguide, only because I need a trolling motor the next day and that was all that they had. I put it on and took it out and it would make a schreaking noise like fingernails down a chalk board. The rotor and stator were making contact. I took that POS back and bought a high quality Minn Kota motor.

One other thing that comes to mind is that there maybe a fuse somewhere between the circuit breakers in back and the trolling motor. It could be inline under the deck close to the motor or on the console.

I dont know Mudd his prob sounds more mechanical than electrical

No arguement, kind of streatching for any simple possibilities here that haven't been given. Mainly threw that out for preventative maintenace, but since the motor has had a history of binding up some in the past I would probably check or replace it if it does have one. It wouldn't hurt to know if you have one or not and it's location and to make sure theres a spare before you get out on the water and it gives you yet anouther surprise, later. :-/ What size is the motor?

Oh yeah no arguement here. Preventative maintenance is always a good idea.